Manberg
Predator
Auba's going on a free. Sell Lacazette he's not good enough. Jury's still out on Nketiah. Bring in an agile striker. Someone like Lautaro Martinez. Next Aguero.
IMO it's too flat as a pairing. Neither possesses any pure athleticism, and while they're defensively quite solid, they're quite limited in terms of ball progression - Xhaka can pass and even then he kills a few counters with inconsistent execution, and Torreira is surprisingly decent at it but rarely chooses the progressive option so far as an Arsenal player.
Torreira is someone I'd be reluctant to write off but, like Guendouzi, he's someone who I'd let go if the money was right.
There's just no chemistry between any of the 3 of them. I think Torreira is a good duel-winner but his slight stature and lack of pure athleticism does count against him honestly - in the PL, you do need a bit more beef in midfield. Not to go all Vince McMahon on this, but it's true and we are severely lacking in athleticism as well as pure all-round technical quality.Aren't both Xhaka and Guendouzi pretty good progressive passers though?
And I agree that there's a lack of athleticism in there. But when Torreira is fit and assigned that destructive role you can't argue that he doesn't put himself about, if you want him to make tackles and interceptions he'll absolutely do that for you.
At the moment it feels like both Torreira and Guendouzi could leave and i'm left sort of scratching my head and wondering how we've failed (if it happens) to develop these players. They're both young and very talented midfielders. I totally believe if they left they could go on to have fantastic careers at the top level.
Hummels ?!?!?3-4-2-1
Leno
Saliba Hummels Holding
AMN McGinn Partey Saka
Pepe Grealish
Aubameyang
We could do a lot worse then taking the best talent from the relegated teams to fatten up our squad depth (except for the prices from buying from PL clubs)I know some footy snobs would turm their noses up at signing a CB from a relegated team but thinking about it Mings is better than any CB at Utd and Chelsea.
I am hoping Orny is right about our interest in Mings.
Big, physical, leader, left footed CB thats decent on the ball.
I know some footy snobs would turm their noses up at signing a CB from a relegated team but thinking about it Mings is better than any CB at Utd and Chelsea.
Mings is crap to average. Decent physical attributes, but awkward on the ball, poor positionally and unproven. No thank you.
We need far better than this level of player.
Grealish is decent. My main question marks against him are his work ethic and commitment.
Get Özil vibes with him in a way. Good on the ball but a bit lazy, he seems like another one of those players who will go missing when the going gets tough. He’s not the roll your sleeves up and get stuck in passionate kind that we’re crying out for.
Tbh I don't really care if my attacking midfielder 'rolls his sleeves up' or not, that's not really his job. If Özil was still creating chances like he used to then I'd be perfectly happy with him and we wouldn't need a new attacking midfielder. Özil's problem isn't his work ethic, it's that he's not creating like he used to.
Grealish makes 2.7 key passes and 2.1 dribbles a game. That's really good, and he could probably improve on those numbers in a better team.